


put another notch in my lipstick case

by metonymy



Category: Pitch Perfect (2012)
Genre: F/F, Shenanigans, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-19
Updated: 2012-12-19
Packaged: 2017-11-21 14:08:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/598611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/metonymy/pseuds/metonymy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not all competitions and fighting with Treblemakers and grueling rehearsals with the Bellas. Sometimes it's about friendship and supporting each other and having inappropriate thoughts about one of the freshies. Or, five times Chloe wanted to kiss Beca and one time Beca kissed Chloe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	put another notch in my lipstick case

**Author's Note:**

  * For [frogy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/frogy/gifts).



**_let it begin, heaven cannot wait forever_ **

Chloe likes Beca.

Chloe _really_ likes Beca.

She's not sure when it went from just thinking Beca seemed like a great potential Bella to thinking Beca was the best thing in the freshman class at Barden. Maybe it was when Beca stole the pen cup and sat down on the stage, utterly uninterested in performing and showing herself off in the most Clarksonian way possible, just singing sweetly about longing and leaving. Maybe it was Beca's innocent freakout over the "blood of the sisters" - honestly, like they would ever go vampire, that's for the Gothic Literature Club weirdoes. But as she finds Beca in the amphitheater stairs she just has to share how excited she is that Beca's one of them now, that they're going to be _really_ good friends, that they have so much to learn from each other.

And it's not even like seeing her talking to Jesse later is a big red flag. They can share. Chloe's flexible about that stuff, she knows everybody has needs and different people can fill different needs, that's why she was hanging out with Taylor or Tyler or whatever his name was in the shower when she first heard Beca singing. If Beca wants Jesse and Chloe, that's cool. Jesse's okay even if he's a Treblemaker now. But maybe this'll be a little hard to explain, so Chloe goes back to get another drink to maybe make that a little easier for her to say. And a drink for Beca, too.

When Chloe turns back, though, Beca's gone. No wavy hair and dark eyeliner and ear spike, nowhere in the gentle curving slope of the concrete rows.

Dammit.

Maybe they can talk after rehearsal sometime.

 

**_and everyone is singing, I hear those sleigh bells ringing_ **

It's not all competitions and fighting with Treblemakers and grueling rehearsals with the Bellas.

Okay, it mostly is, but Chloe's managed to convince Aubrey that they can't give up the tradition of singing at the senior center downtown even if semifinals are hanging in the balance. Besides, it makes them better people than the Trebles. Bumper would never waste his time on a bunch of old folks. Except he'd probably call them something gross.

Stacie shows up wearing the tightest Christmas sweater Chloe's seen in her entire life, and Fat Amy is swathed in a massive knitted scarf that circles her multiple times.

"Too bad it's winter here," she says in that brassy way of hers. "I've got a Santa bikini that drives the boys mental back home."

"I made a gingerbread guillotine and headless cookies," Lilly whispers, and everybody stares at her for a moment.

"Anyway!" Chloe says brightly, looking at the group. "Who's ready to sing some Christmas carols!" It's not a question: they all are, goddammit. Even Beca appears to have conceded to the seasonal mandate and put on a dark green hoodie.

"Everybody got the list, right?" Aubrey asks, as if she hadn't triple-emailed each of them and shoved printouts under their doors. At least here going with tradition isn't going to hurt their chances of success. The old people like the classics better anyway.

"There weren't any Hanukkah songs on that list," Ashley says timidly.

"There aren't any good Hanukkah songs anyway," Aubrey snaps. "Dreidel is short and repetitive and does not show off our vocal stylings to their best. Also nobody cares about Hanukkah."

The senior center smells faintly like poop and decay under antiseptic most of the time, but now all of that is overlaid with the powerful smell of pine-scented air freshener. There's a tree in the corner with some handcrafted ornaments, and Chloe appreciates the abundant use of glitter and twinkly lights.

"Is that _mistletoe?_ " someone asks under their breath.

"Hey, if old people want to get their freak on, you can't stop that," Stacie says with a shrug.

They all take their place by the tree and arrange into a half-circle, in front of a crowd of wheelchairs and walkers and folding chairs, and it's familiar and warm and like a capella should be, in Chloe's opinion. Making great music with a bunch of great ladies who are maybe sort of finally coming together into a group, even if they haven't filed off all the rough edges. Cynthia Rose does a rendition of "Silver Bells" that makes at least one little old lady pull out a handkerchief and start dabbing at her eyes, and everybody keeps tempo and hits all the eighth notes crisply in "Carol of the Bells," and Stacie's solo on "Sleigh Ride" is surprisingly restrained and effective.

Then, finally, they launch into the classic of classics. The best Christmas song ever, the grand finale: "All I Want for Christmas is You." It's Chloe's solo, it was bestowed upon her by Brittany the last Bella who sang it as a senior, and it's a rite of passage and one of the greatest honors in the Bella repertoire. And Chloe can tell within the first line that her nodes do not want to let her sing this song this year. It's enough to make her start welling up with tears, because this is the one thing she has to herself and she can't do it right, not anymore.

And Beca notices, because they all know the telltale signs by now, and Beca steps up next to her and starts singing even though she's technically an alto and can't hit those high notes, and then Beca glances behind her and makes a little head-jerking noise and Cynthia Rose takes a step forward and nails the bridge in a husky voice that makes Chloe tear up a little, and then Fat Amy joins them and somehow all four of them have their arms around each other's shoulders and it's like a tiny little Christmas miracle right there in the middle of the senior center. It's a little messy, but nobody in the audience seems to notice. Or maybe they just don't care. When they're done, Fat Amy grabs Aubrey and hustles her off as if she's planned to deflect any criticism of Beca. Not this time; no mashup, no surprises, no real reason for Aubrey to complain except for the loss of control. Fat Amy's saying something about Barbies and Aubrey is, for once, speechless.

"Thanks, Bec," Chloe says, hugging the other girl tightly. "You saved us!" Really what she wants to do is drag Beca over to the mistletoe and show her appreciation properly, but Stacie is over there and eyeing one of the aides who's under fifty, and also Beca might find that weird. So instead she just grins, and Beca shyly smiles back, and this time when they hug Beca almost hugs back.

 

**_winter spring summer or fall, all you've got to do is call and I'll be there_ **

  
  
  


 

**_I've been losing sleep, I've been keeping myself awake_ **

The Bellas didn't book a block of rooms for the finals, and the ICCA administrators can't just give them the Footnotes' rooms for some stupid reason, so they're all piled into one big room with two to a bed, two on the pullout sofa, one in a cot, and two on the floor. Lilly's sleeping in the bathtub with a towel wadded under her head. Fat Amy's got a leopard-print sleep mask decorated with pink sequins pulled down under her bangs. It's quiet except for breathing; it's hard to tell if everybody's asleep or just lying there wracked with nerves. Maybe Chloe's just projecting.

The bed shifts under Chloe, and the door opens and shuts a moment later. So okay, she's not projecting, at least one other person is as nervous as she is. Chloe carefully gets up and tiptoes around the end of the sofa bed and over Ashley and out of the room. When she gets to the end of the hall, blinking against the light, she sees Beca curled up on one of the decorative sofas.

"Hey. You should be sleeping. Resting up before the big day." Not that Chloe was ever good at falling asleep before a big performance either. She's used to being a bundle of nerves, of being the last one to the stage. That was how it was for ages until she and Aubrey took over and they had to step up. Now Chloe's the one organizing, renting vans, calling hotels, paying entrance fees, and making sure everybody's getting a good night's sleep. But it gives her something to do, something less hard-assed than Aubrey was all year till the big fight. A different way to lead. And emotional support is important too.

"Did I wake you up? Sorry." Beca's got dark circles under her eyes and her cuticles are all ragged.

Chloe sits down next to Beca, close enough that her pink flannel pajama pants are brushing Beca's boxers. "It's okay to be nervous."

Beca's mouth twists. "I wasn't nervous before."

"Because you hated our old routine," Chloe points out. "And once you learned it, you were fine. Now we're going up there with songs _you_ picked out and arranged, and new choreography and everything else. It's a lot to do in less than a week." It's the same thing Chloe's been worrying about, even if she hasn't let herself admit it.

"I just... it's a lot easier when it's just me in my room with the music." Beca takes a breath and lets it out shudderingly, wrapping her arms around her legs. Chloe leans against her; it would be too awkward to hug her at this angle but the contact's important. And this way Beca doesn't have to look right at her. "There's no audience. And no group to let down."

"You're not going to let us down," Chloe says, quiet but firm. "You're amazing. The song is amazing. If we don't win it's not going to be because of your arrangement. And we are gonna win."

"You think so?" Beca uncurls a little and turns to look at Chloe, their foreheads almost touching.

"I do." And Chloe holds her breath and waits and is about to tilt her head and lean in when Beca leans back to cover a jaw-cracking yawn. They both laugh, and Chloe gets up and offers Beca a hand up. Beca takes it and doesn't let go once they're standing up. "Think you can get some sleep now?"

"Well, if that yawn's any indication, yes." Beca fishes the keycard out of her pocket and starts walking, tugging a little at Chloe's hand. "But I wanna be the big spoon."

 

**_and tonight we can truly say together we're invincible_ **

They won.

They fucking won.

They are fucking national champions of a ca-fucking-pella, as Beca said.

And right now, giddy with triumph and drunk on excitement, they're arguing over jumping into the fountain in the middle of Lincoln Center. There's a ring around the fountain itself a couple feet off the ground and wide, and Fat Amy and Stacie are already up on it and trying to convince the rest of them to hop in.

"Come on! It'll be symbolic, yeah?" Fat Amy says, then lifts their massive trophy aloft. "We are reborn in the spray of the sacred fountain! Winners!"

"No way. That is nasty. You know how many dead pigeons float in that thing?" Denise retorts.

"Oh, to hell with it," Aubrey says, and barrels through the rest of them and vaults over the ring and into the spray. Her shrieks are piercing, but that doesn't slow Fat Amy or Stacie down, and Lilly leaps over the ring and starts backstroking through the shallow water. With laughter and shouts the rest of them clamber in - because if Aubrey is doing it, they can't really justify skipping out - and Chloe finds herself splashing in a circle with Cynthia Rose and Ashley and giggling uncontrollably.

They _won._

"LADIES. PLEASE EVACUATE THE FOUNTAIN IMMEDIATELY." The booming voice belongs to a security guard, and they all shuffle and splash their way out and clamber over the ring to stand in a dripping row on the pavement.

"You're not going to arrest us, are you?" Ashley asks timidly, and everybody starts talking at once and explaining how they were just overexcited and Fat Amy can't get arrested on her student visa and Lilly muttering something about her third strike in New York state, and the security guard folds his arms and surveys the whole lot of them.

He doesn't arrest them, but he does suggest they vacate Lincoln Center immediately, and they all wind up on a subway back to their hotel. Aubrey and Chloe end up on one bench seat together, and they watch the rest of the girls as the train clatters and shakes. Lilly is beatboxing while Stacie and Ashley attempt to freestyle over it; Fat Amy and Jessica have the trophy snuggled up between them and are talking with Denise about how great it's going to be when they get back to campus; and Beca's blushing and smiling and trading jibes with Cynthia Rose, who's teasing her gently about breaking their sacred oath and kissing a Treblemaker.

"We did it," Aubrey says, sounding surprised and tired and satisfied. Chloe leans against her oldest friend and looks at the rest of their group and smiles.

"I knew we could do it," she says. Beca glances over at her, cheeks flushed pink and wet hair drying into fluffy curls, and Chloe smiles back.

"You were right about her," Aubrey says.

"Beca's pretty great," Chloe answers once Beca's looking away. Aubrey's quiet for a moment, then finds Chloe's hand and squeezes it.

"Yeah. She is."

 

**_if you fall I will catch you, I will be waiting_ **

Graduation sort of seems like an afterthought, now that they've achieved the goal they worked so hard for, now that they're champions. Champions: the word feels nice in her mouth, round and finishing off at the front right behind the teeth with the _s_. All of them, together. Sometimes she forgets what she was even majoring in, or how she managed to pass her finals after coming back from Lincoln Center.

The Bellas perform at commencement, Aubrey's cap held on with a million bobby pins, Chloe's decorated with the Bellas' signature B that adorns the pitch pipe. Her tassel swings back and forth as they side-step to a medley Beca arranged of "Time After Time" and "Maps" that makes Chloe start to tear up. Aubrey sniffles audibly in the moment after the song ends and Chloe reaches over to take her hand and squeeze it tight. 

After the ceremony's over, Chloe's hugging and greeting everyone in sight when she finally sees Beca. Not the other Bellas, just Beca, in Barden green and the eye makeup and her Bellas scarf wrapped around her ponytail.

"Congratulations," Beca says, with one of those smiles that starts off shy and ends up goofy. The transition is a lot faster these days. "Um, do we hug?"

"We definitely hug," Chloe says, and maybe the tassel on her cap smacks Beca in the face and her diploma crinkles against Beca's back, but right now she doesn't care. When they pull apart, they're both smiling.

"It's not gonna be the same without you," Beca says, then half-laughs. "Or Aubrey."

"We're leaving the Bellas in capable hands. You saved us, Beca, and you've got Fat Amy and Cynthia Rose and Stacie and everyone to back you up." There wasn't really any argument or discussion after finals; everybody just sort of knew that she was officially in charge but that they'd all be working together from now on. Chloe's still got her arms half around Beca, but it feels nice, feels normal, feels right. This might be the last time she sees her for -

"And you'll come back to see us perform, right?" Beca's obviously not used to asking stuff like this, can barely look Chloe in the eye, but Chloe just squeezes her again in another hug.

"Of course. I won't forget about you. How could I?"

Beca's smirky smile softens. "You better not."

"Aca-promise."

Beca hugs Chloe again, and turns her head a little, and Chloe can feel the soft pressure of lips against her cheek for just a moment. And it's like a minor chord's resolved and things are ending on just the right note.

**Author's Note:**

> Edited 7/15/14 to include alt-text for images.


End file.
